Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

A FEMALE brown bear mauled one man to death and seriously injured seven others near the Transylvanian city of Brasov before being shot dead by local hunters.

In the first of two incidents, the bear attacked five people who had been picking mushrooms in a forest on the outskirts of the central Romanian city, police said overnight.

An ambulance rushed to the scene, and was also attacked by the bear before she ran into the forest, said Dr Liviu Stelea, who treated victims at the scene.

Five people "had multiple, serious wounds and were taken to the hospital in critical condition", Dr Stelea said.

Half an hour later, ambulance workers called to a nearby area at the forest edge found one man dead and another two seriously injured in a bear attack, Dr Stelea said.

Hunters, police officers and animal control services were sent to the forest to find the bear, while Brasov Mayor George Scripcaru declared a state of emergency in the city of 300,000, about 170km northwest of Bucharest.

Hunters shot and killed the bear several hours later, state news agency Rompres reported. The bear slightly injured a hunter before being shot, Dr Stelea said.

Romania has thousands of brown bears living in the wild, and they often near Brasov, which is surrounded by large forested areas in the Carpathian Mountains.